Author: Ninja
Author's Note: This will be our dumping ground for shorter material and prompts. We hope you enjoy.
He always came back here.
The sun was waning, large and bold. It illuminated wisps of clouds that drifted, indifferent, before and about it with each lit like flame. The horizon stretched for miles, almost endless, out into the sea. Every wave shimmered red in the light and specked with gold.
There was no doubt a million places across the globe where one could stand and be transfixed by a similar sight; the same sun, the same light. But he always came here, to this spot, because here things were different somehow - here there was meaning. Here, beneath the water and the air was something precious; something of him.
In times of trouble and uncertainty he always came here, without fail, and he wasn't sure what was sadder: that he always did so, or that being here in this place always managed to comfort him.
"What do you say?" he asked the air. His gaze pierced past the red of the sky; past the dark sweep of his helm, looking at nothing but looking for something. It was a something he knew was long gone.
And it was always the same question asked in slightly different ways: What would you do?
It was quiet. Buildings, old and shadowed, groaned. A pier stretched out before him empty of movement. The post beneath his feet bore his weight with ease. He felt suspended and weightless, as though he existed outside of time even though the steady descent of the sun told him otherwise. Sliver by sliver it disappeared always without fail, marking yet another day.
He knew himself. He knew why he always came here, knew what brought him here and what called to him with the advance of every night. He knew the urge for what it was: the opportunity to breathe life into a ghost, to reach out and touch memory. Sentimental, he realized, and so very human – this he knew as well.
Armor moving in the dark. A red glint, a small smile. The blur of movement, the sigh of air, cold and rushing.
"Slow today."
"Faster than you."
He turned his head. Littering the landscape behind him was a multitude of lights; a blanket of white and blue that washed out the stars. The city gleamed alive and distant and as stark against the sky as he.
Hands moving in the light. A small smile, a green flash. The tap of movement, the whine of tools, dull and sparking.
"Another mode?"
"A tank this time."
So little escaped him. Every sensor whirred with life. Within and about him nothing was still. Nothing, that is, except for his body; always upright, balanced, arms crossed, pulsing with the here and now.
Shadows shifting in the light. A green flash, a thin laugh. The brush of movement, the glint of weapons, quick as lightning.
"This will be the last upgrade."
"Soon you'll be complete."
The sun dipped lower. Color bled away with it, tinting his purple armor black. It was always this subtle shift that brought him back and untangled his thoughts and drew his gaze back to the sea. His vents sighed as though he were breathing.
Always, just before the plunge, he managed one last breath.
/Dekkado to Shadowmaru,/ the radio crackled, always on cue. /Checking in./
"Will you be there?"
/This is Shadowmaru. On my way./
Gaze downcast in the dark. A sad smile, a small frown. The lack of movement, a slow nod, all wrapped in silence.
He leaped, wings flaring; sharp, black, sudden, outlined by the sun, always shifting shape at the apex of the jump with his thrusters screaming toward the sky.
"I don't know why I ask. You always are."
Live my life to the fullest, you told me. Two laughs for every one; once for me, and once for you.
What do you say, Kagerou? Does that sound fair?
You always kept your promises.
Well... So will I.